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'Good offer' on table to keep TVR in town
TOWN hall chiefs fighting to keep troubled car maker TVR in Blackpool have made a last-ditch offer to Russian owner Nikolai Smolenski.
And the man behind the bid said today: "We think it's a good offer."
TVR bosses, including Mr Smolenski, held talks with council chiefs last week to try to thrash out a deal to keep the company in Blackpool.
The company announced last month it was to close its Bristol Avenue factory in Bispham, putting 260 jobs at risk.
Seventy one workers have already been laid off following a slump in sales.
Alan Cavill, Blackpool's head of corporate policy and development, said: "We'd committed ourselves to get something to TVR in writing by the weekend and we've done that. We have now sent the confirmation of that offer.
"The company has been very clear in what it wanted and we think we can get somewhere near to that. The feeling remains the same. We think it's a pretty good offer, but it's a commercial decision for a commercial company.
"We're selling the benefits of the town to them as best we can and stressing the benefits of having a skilled workforce already available.
"They are not going to tell us what other places have offered them, but if our offer was just as good as anywhere else, then they would stay here."
TVR are believed to prefer a site with room for expansion, access to the motorway network and proximity to an airport.
The Gazette understands a council-owned site in South Shore, close to Blackpool Airport, has been discussed.
But if a deal cannot be reached, TVR may take up offers elsewhere in the UK, or even abroad.
Mr Cavill said no deadline has been set for a decision but stressed he hoped for an answer soon so not to prolong the agony for workers fearing for their futures.
The news comes as Cheshire-based Vauxhall workers were today expected to be told that 1,000 jobs are to be axed at the company's Ellesmere Port plant.
Chancellor Gordon Brown and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling are expected to visit the factory shortly after the announcement is made. They are set to stress Government support for the car industry.
Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, said the loss of jobs at TVR, Peugeot's plant near Coventry, and now Vauxhall were linked to the ease with which employers could sack workers in this country.
Mr Simpson said: "The Government must take action to protect British manufacturing employment."
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Weather for Blackpool
Monday 13 February 2012
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Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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